Humanismo, História, Cultura e Religião

Bible morality or depravity?

(Following are biblical verses compiled by independent comparative religion scholar and Freethought Nation guestwriter Barbara G. Walker, concerning the supposed “morality” of the Bible. The paraphrases and commentary are Barbara’s, while the original verses are linked. For more of Barbara’s Bible investigations, see MAN MADE GOD, especially the section on Bible Studies.)

BIBLE MORALITY (King James Version)

1. KILLING. (As in “Thou shalt not”…???)

The biblical god personally kills a total of 371,186 people, not counting his slaughter of every living thing in Genesis 7. The biblical god also orders the killing of a total of 1,862,265.

Gen 22:2 – God accepts human sacrifices (including that of Jesus, later).Ex 12:29 – God kills all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.Ex 15:3 – God is a god of war.Ex 21:15, 17 – Anyone who strikes or curses a parent must be killed.Ex 22:18 – Every witch must be killed.Ex 22:19, 20 – You must kill anyone who “lieth with a beast,” or who worships any god other than Yahweh.Ex 31:15 – Anyone who works on the Sabbath must be killed.Lev 20:10, 13, 27 – You must kill adulterers, homosexuals, wizards and spirit mediums.Lev 21:9 – Any priest’s daughter who fornicates must be burned alive.Lev 24:16 – Blasphemers must be killed.Num 16:27-33 – God caused the whole tribe of Korah — men, women, and children — to be buried alive.Num 21:3 – God caused the destruction of all the Canaanites.

Num 31:7-35 – God orders Moses to kill the Midianites, making sure to slaughter not only the men but also the boys and females, except for the 32,000 virgin girls.Deut 3:4 – God is pleased that his warriors destroyed 60 cities.Deut 7:16 – You must kill all the people God delivers into your hands, and “thine eye shall have no pity upon them.”Deut 13:5 – Any prophet or “dreamer of dreams,” who serves another god, must be killed.Deut 13:6-9 – If your brother, son, daughter, wife, or friend tempts you to worship other gods, “thou shalt surely kill him.”Deut 13:13-15 – If the people of any city worship other gods, you must slaughter them all, including their cattle.Deut 17:5 – Any man or woman who worships other deities of sun, moon or stars must be stoned to death.Deut 18:20 – False prophets must be killed.Deut 20:16-17 – God commands complete destruction of all Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, and “thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.”Deut 22:21 – A bride found not to be a virgin must be stoned to death.Deut 22:22 – Adulterers must be killed.Deut 22:23-24 – A girl who is raped within city limits, and fails to cry out, must be killed.Deut 28:22-28 – If you don’t obey God’s commandments, he will punish you with consumption, fever, extreme burning, blasting, mildew, hemorrhoids, the scab, the itch, the botch of Egypt, etc., as well as “madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.”Josh 6:21 – God’s warriors destroyed Jericho and killed every man, woman, child, and domestic animal.Josh 8:25 – God’s warriors killed 12,000 people in the city of Ai.Josh 19:47 – The children of Dan wanted more room, so they destroyed the whole population of Leshen and took their territory.Judges 1:17-18 – Judah and Simeon utterly destroyed the populations of Zephath, Gaza, Askelon and Ekron.Judges 11:39 – In accord with God’s law, Jephthah was forced to burn his virgin daughter to death as a sacrifice.Judges 15:15 – God enables Samson to kill 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass.Judges 20:46 – At Gibeah, Benjamin’s men killed 25,000 people and burned every town.1 Sam 6:19 – God kills 50,070 people for trying to peek into the Ark.1 Sam 15:3 – God commands the destruction of Amalek: “Slay both men and women, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”2 Sam 6:7 – God kills Uzzah for touching the Ark, even though he was trying to save it from falling off its oxcart.1 Kings 18:40 – God commands the slaughter of “prophets of Baal”.1 Kings 20:36 – Because a man didn’t “obey the voice of the Lord,” a lion was sent to kill him.2 Kings 2:24 – God sent bears to tear apart 42 children for making fun of Elisha’s bald head.2 Kings 10:25 – God commands the killing of a multitude in the temple of Baal.2 Kings 19:35 – God’s angel killed 185,000 Assyrians in a single night.1 Chron 21:14 – God kills 70,000 Israelites with a pestilence.2 Chron 15:13 – Any man or woman who refuses to “seek the Lord God of Israel” must be killed.Job 1:15-19 – God arranges the killing of Job’s children, servants and animals.Isa 13:16 – God promises that all the Babylonians’ children will be “dashed to pieces before their eyes;” their wives will be raped.Isa 45:7 – God says “I create evil.”Jer 48:10 – Killing for God is mandatory; God curses anyone who “keepeth back his sword from blood.”Jer 50:21 – God commands that the people of Merathaim and Pekod be “utterly destroyed.”Ezek 9:5-7 – God calls for purging in Jerusalem: “let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women… fill the courts with the slain.”Ezek 35:8 – God promises to fill the mountains, hills, valleys and rivers with slain men.Hosea 13:16 – God promises to have Samaritan infants dashed to pieces, and pregnant women will have their bellies slashed open.Nahum 1:2 – God is jealous, full of vengeance and wrath.Zeph 1:3 – God threatens to destroy everything, man and beast, birds and fishes.Zeph 1:18 – “The whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy.”Zeph 3:6 – God brags that he has destroyed many nations.Zech 13:3 – A false prophet must be killed by his father and mother.

2. RAPE

Ex 21:7-8 – A father may sell his daughter to be a “maidservant” (or sex slave) who must “please her master.”Num 31:7, 18 – God orders his warriors to kill every living thing in a captured city, except the virgin girls, who are to be raped and turned into sex slaves.Deut 21:11-12 – If a warrior likes the look of a female war captive, he can take her to be one of his “wives.”Deut 22:28-29 – A man who rapes a virgin may take her for a wife if he pays her father 50 shekels of silver. (Yet, a bride found not to be a virgin must be stoned to death – Deut 22:20-21).Judges 5:30 – The spoils of war include “a damsel or two” for every man.Judges 21:12-23 – God’s warriors killed all the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead except for 400 virgin girls, who were taken as slaves. If there are not enough girls to go around, God’s warriors may raid neighboring towns for more to rape.

3. SLAVERY

Gen 9:25 – God cursed Ham, son of Noah, with perpetual slavery for the crime of seeing his father naked. (Ham was formerly considered the ancestor of all “blacks.”)Ex 21:4 – A male slave may marry and have children, and may go free after six years; but his family remains the property (or hostages?) of his master.Ex 21:7 – A man may sell his daughter as a sex slave.Ex 21:20-21 – A man may be punished for beating a male or female slave
to death, but if the victim survives the beating for a few days, then
there is no penalty.Lev 19:20 – When a man has sex with a female slave (or “bondmaid”), SHE must be scourged.Eph 6:5 – Paul says slaves must obey their masters “with fear and trembling.”Titus 2:9 – Paul says slaves must obey and please their masters.1 Tim 6:1 – Paul says slaves must “count their masters worthy of all honor.”

4. WAS JESUS ETHICAL?

Matt 5:28-32 – Jesus says marriage to a divorcee is adultery; and a man who ogles a woman has already committed adultery; and that you must cut off your hand or pluck out your eye if it offends.Matt 6:19-34 – Jesus says don’t save any money and don’t plan ahead.Matt 8:32 – Having no regard for private property, Jesus destroys a herd of someone else’s pigs.Matt 10:34 – Jesus says he brings not peace on earth but “a sword.”Matt 19:12 – Jesus says the best way for a man to be sure of getting into heaven is to have himself castrated.Mark 11:13 – Jesus destroys a fig tree for not bearing figs out of season.Mark 14:4-7 – Jesus says it is more important to anoint him with precious ointment than to give to the poor, who will always be here. (Why not just get rid of poverty?)Mark 16:18 – Jesus says anyone who believes in him can play with venomous snakes or drink poison without harm. (This act has been often tried, with rather unsatisfactory results.)Luke 12:47-48 – Jesus says it is permissible to whip slaves.Luke 14:26 – Jesus says no man can be his disciple unless he hates his parents, siblings, wife, children, and himself as well.Luke 19:27 – In telling a parable, Jesus insinuates that anyone who denies his rulership must be killed.John 15:6 – Jesus says anyone who doesn’t believe in him must be burned.Acts 5:5-10 – Ananias and his wife Sapphira were killed for withholding money from the church.2 John 1:10-11 – A Christian is forbidden to offer hospitality to a non-Christian, not even to wish him “Godspeed” on parting.

5. WOMEN IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

1 Cor 11:3-10 – Women are inferior “because man was not created for woman, but woman was created for man.” Every woman “while praying or prophesying” must have her head covered “because of the angels,” meaning the spirits (it used to be believed that women’s hair attracts spirits).1 Cor 14:34-35 – Women must not speak in church, which is a shame for them to do. If they want to ask questions, they must learn from their husbands at home.Eph 5:22 – Wives must submit to their husbands as they would to God.1 Tim 2:11-15 – A woman must not teach, or hold authority over a man, but must “learn in silence with all subjection,” because “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (So, being gullible is the original sin.)1 Tim 5:9 – Paul says the only women acceptable by the council of elders are devout, monogamous women over the age of sixty.

6. SILLINESS

Gen 1:11-19 – God made all green plants on the third day of creation, but neglected to supply the sun (on which both plants and “days” depend) until the fourth day.Gen 6:6-7 – Because a few people displeased him, God “repented” having made the world, and decided to destroy all life on earth.Lev 11:5-6 – God thinks rabbits are cud-chewing animals.Deut 22:5 – All cross-dressers, or women who wear pants, are “abominations.”Deut 25:11-12 – A woman who seizes a man’s genitals, even to defend her husband from an attacker, must have her hand cut off.Deut 33:17 – God believes in unicorns.Matt 5:22 – Jesus says anyone who calls another “fool” will go to hell, but then he does it himself (Matt 23:17).1 Tim 2:9 – Christian women are forbidden to braid their hair or wear jewelry.James 5:14-15 – Prayer by the elders of the church is the only sure cure for sickness. (Christian Science, anyone?)